They all believe Romney’s years of private sector work and leadership skills seal the deal. Unquestionably, they feel Romney is ready to be wrapped in the presidential mantle.

★UPDATE - Add former First Lady Barbara Bush’s name to the list. She recorded a robo call message for Mitt that is playing throughout Vermont:

★Senator Coburn:

“I’m proud to support Romney because he is a leader. What Romney has done in his 25 years in the private sector is precisely what we need a president to do in Washington. Romney has done hard things. He has turned businesses around, told people hard truths about what needed to be done, inspired confidence and overcome excuses.”

America faces the greatest challenges of any in my lifetime. Our debt is now the size of our entire economy. If we don’t change course in the near future, we will face an economic catastrophe far worse than our recent recession.

At the same time, we’re facing a crisis of leadership in Washington. The problems and solutions are widely understood — and far from impossible to implement — yet our so-called leaders have shown little interest in solving problems. President Obama campaigned as a transformational leader, yet he has rejected transformational solutions such as the Simpson-Bowles plan that gave Washington a framework for averting a debt crisis.

Elections are about choices. This November, the most important choice facing the American people will be whether we will demand a solution and avert a debt crisis or whether we will continue to accept the status quo and hope for the best. I’m confident the vast majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle want a solution. The next choice, then, is deciding who is best qualified to enact a solution.

In life, and especially politics, our choices are seldom perfect and often difficult. But it is critically important to make a choice and support the person who is best equipped to solve the urgent problems before us. In my view, that person is Mitt Romney.

From my experience, Washington tends to be divided between two groups — leaders and career politicians. Leaders tend to have a wealth of real-world experience outside of politics and are in office to give rather than take something from their position. Career politicians, on the other hand, mean well but are ill-equipped to solve problems. Their greatest skill is getting re-elected.

If Mitt gets to the White House and has a chance to do for the country what he did for Massachusetts, we will see a turnaround in this country unlike any we have seen before.

Massachusetts Republican Representatives Stand with Mitt

Click on map to enlarge.

Over the course of this election season, we members of the Massachusetts Republican Legislative Caucus, have watched and listened as our former Governor’s record has been scrutinized by his rivals and by the national media. Now it is our turn to speak.

Republicans in Massachusetts never had a stronger leader, a greater defender, or a better friend in the State House than Mitt Romney.

Let’s start with the economy. When Mitt was elected Governor, Massachusetts was on the verge of financial disaster. Workers across the state were being laid off at the rate of thousands a month.

Our state budget was bleeding red ink, and Democratic politicians were proclaiming that only tax increases could fill the gap. Raising taxes, of course, was not Governor Romney’s way. Quite the opposite. With the same energy and intelligence he brings to every challenge he faces, he brought efficiency to our state government. He streamlined our budget and cut unneeded programs.

Without raising taxes—indeed, he cut taxes nineteen times—he balanced the budget every year of his term. By the end of four years, he had turned a $3 billion deficit into a $2 billion rainy-day fund. With the state government’s finances in order, the economy picked up steam. Unemployment at the end of Mitt’s term was 4.7 percent, a rate the state envies now.

But the economy was not the only realm where Mitt was a leader. He cracked down on illegal immigration by vetoing an in-state tuition bill and by authorizing state troopers to detain people who had entered the country illegally. When Democrats caved to the teachers unions and sought to impose a one-year moratorium on publicly-funded charter schools, Mitt successfully turned back their efforts.